Anyway. I think we should also discuss some finals-related decorum issues I have…
For the sake of honesty, I’d like to acknowledge that I’ve probably violated these rules myself. I make no warranties related to my behavior during finals. But anyway.
1. If you are doing a laptop exam, and your laptop breaks and the class has to wait for you, it’s fine. I’m okay with that. What I’m not okay with is the people who stroll in at 8:29 a.m. and then we all have to sit there and wait for you to click through the twelve hundred screens SofTest makes you click through. R-E-S-P-E-C-T, people. I want to be done with this class, and dammit, those five minutes KILL me every time.
2. This is a personal preference more than anything, but don’t walk out of the exam and immediately start discussing your answers. Especially if you’re smarter than me, because I already feel depressed enough after taking a four-hour test at the crack of dawn…I don’t need to hear that it was all a waste and I will fail quite yet. (Kidding. It’s more that I just don’t want to hear about it anymore, period.)
3. This one applies to proctors moreso than students, but I think decorum dictates that they should be pleasant in the stressful minutes leading up to the exam. I’ve had a few proctors that were pretty foul and shrieky, and I don’t appreciate the “PUTYOURBAGSATTHEFRONTOFTHEROOM, PEOPLE!” refrain starting twenty minutes before the exam. Be nice to us, proctors. We’re frail and vulnerable right now. (sniffle)
4. Let’s all resolve to try to find something else to talk about other than finals, okay? It’s hard, I know, since it’s what consumes us for at least three weeks, so by the last few days we can barely remember the feeling of sunshine and the smell of food not from a vending machine. But I think we’d all be a little happier if we didn’t discuss our misery (since it’s pretty much implied at this point) and talked about something–anything–but finals. Example: “Hey, Brie, what’s up?” Reply: “Oh, hey, not much, ummm (brain straining), I taught my cat to meow whenever he hears the word pizza!” And then a wonderful, non-finals-related conversation can blossom, and we’ll all be a little less miserable.
Propose your rules in the comments!
5. Don’t get up and turn in your test if there are fewer than ten minutes remaining in the exam period. By that point everyone is rushing to finish, and you distract the whole class by strolling to the front of the room and then joyfully pack your bag and stomping out. You can wait ten minutes to leave, especially if it is to the benefit of those around you.
The worst was when I went to an exam last year and a girl in the room shouted to her friend on the otherside of the room, “Don’t forget rule so and so means this and rule so and so means that.” I wanted to scream SHUT UP as I had no idea what those rules were!
Here’s one I’ve been guilty of: wearing flip flops. As I went up and down the stairs and handed in my test, my footwear clicked…extremely annoying.
Has anyone else had the old guy who blows his nose and eats potato chips during the test?
I love the amount of sequels/running features on this blog, I think everyone should try for one.
Love that you used Estelle Winslow as the pic here.
i have to comment on the “no talking about the exam” pet peeve with a qualifier: agreed, some of us reach a saturation point with regards to particular class material; and overhearing someone prattle off their exam answers can prompt a dangerous rage.
that being said, many people need to communicate in order to cope with stress, i.e., discussing the exam answers acts as a steam valve. so i try not simply dismiss them as obnoxious gunners when i overhear it. your way of coping may be to carry on and not look back, but another person’s way may be to analyz